A Warrior in the Making
by NationalCraft
Summary: Captured by the enemy to become a warrior, to become to protect the world, seems like a job for mario? Not this time, join our koopa as he is forced to endure everything the world has to dish out and become the hero everyone needs him to be, or die in the process.
1. War, Horses and Jokers

AN: Keeping these short and sweet :D Enjoy the read and R&R

Disclaimer: I don't own anything owned by Nintendo!

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A Warrior in the Making

Chapter 1: War, Horses and Jokers

"The end of the world is coming." A friend is telling me, we are sitting in one of Bowser's great castle. Bowser is the king of all of us in the Darklands, we know he's a ruthless dictator who only cares for himself, he is at least 8 foot tall with a sharp spikes on his grand murky green shell. A fire breathing half dragon that puts monster to shame. The other half you ask? We have no idea.

I happen to be part of his massive army, known to the world as 'koopatrol', not exactly a menacingly horrifying name, but the mere mention of it makes civilisations squirm in fear. Why am I apart of this terrible group? Well how else am I gonna pay for my stay?

Anyway I'm frontline cannon fodder, an average koopatroopa, a shiny green shell covering my body, and I have tan yellow skin with plain green eyes, yeah, not a lot special about me. Now, on with the story of this 'end of the world.'

"What are you talking about? You've said that enough times through out the conversation..." I say to my friend, also a koopatroopa, only difference is his turqoise eyes, slightly altered skin and a bright red shells.

"Have you been listening at all!? I have been talking about that prophet that came to give us that 10 year lecture! I didn't actually mean that's going to happen! Don't you remember?" At that my mouth slowly shapes into an 'O' while laughing,

"Ah sorry about that, I was sort of... day dreaming I guess." this is my meek reply as the koopa in front of me just sighs in frustration,

"You know if someone really attacked this castle you wouldn't realise until someone gave you a smack in the face screaming:"

"We're under attack!" someone screams in the distance, I just look at my friend wide-eyed,

"I guess you were right about-" We hear a loud smash as the whole fort trembles like an earthquake hit as rocks crash into the side of the walls, "that..."

"Positions you maggots!" A koopatrol cries, they are like us koopas but they wear shiny spiked silver armour and they are the true knights of Bowser's still grand army. "That includes you two idiots!" He shouts to us, we almost startle in surprise in unison as we jump to action,

"Argh fine, lets get to the front gate." My red koopa friend reminds me, I nod to him as we sprint to our positions,

"So much for my day off." I mutter under my breath.

...

We reach the front gate as I skid to a stop, "No way..." I couldn't help saying, 300 of them stand before us, all of them, toads. No, not that kind of toad. These ones are small humanoid creatures that wear mushroom caps on their head, mostly white and red spots. All of which who wield either brandished swords and spears, while some have shields and the leaders wear bright white capes. Some of them even found horses, goodness knows where in this land, and we found the sources of the rocks smashing against our walls, 20 foot catapults slinging massive rocks air with ease,

"How long were they preparing for this?" My red shelled friend told me,

"I don't think I wanna know Drake, I don't think I wanna know." I tell him truthfully, was the Mushroom kingdom preparing to invade us this entire time? Bowser had attacked that Kingdom many times, though only twice did he try to actually take over the world, the rest of the times he kept trying to capture this princess named Peach, though every time the plan was foiled but the mushroom kingdom hero, Mario. I still have no idea what he looks like, but I get the idea that he is ridiculous heroic, saving the world multiple times and defeating bowser at least 10 times over.

I think the Mushroom Kingdom, however, has had enough of it, and now we are the first to taste their wrath. Great.

"Attack! Now is the time where we finish the Darklands! Charge, in the name of the Mushroom Kingdom, in the name of Queen Toadstool!" A blue dotted toad calls out, obviously the leader as he wields both a sword and spear, along with a red and white striped cape and silver striking armour.

"Toadstool? Is there a new woman in power?" I couldn't help asking.

"No, Troy, Toadstool is her last name, hence the more majestic name to use, more likely than not, but that's not exactly important right now, we are in a warzone here!"

From that I snap back into reality and realise something, "We don't have any weapons! How do we deal with this!?" I raise my voice slightly as I say this, but Drake only slowly shakes his head,

"Hammer bros, fire bros, and all those others do, so do the princes, we're cannon fodder remember? But we do have the bullet bills on our side." My red shelled friend explains to me, the bullet bills are similar to cannons but we these massive bills are completely back except for their eyes with the white around the eyes. Even though they are the best cannons in the world it gave me limited reassurance.

"So we aren't going to make it in short." I make a statement of a question, he slowly sighs as he shakes his head. But before we could really take in that we might not live to tell the tale another day the legions of toads are upon us.

I quickly jab the toad in front of me and I made a dash for the weapon is his hand, whipping it off him in seconds, I take a quick look at it and realise its a slight curved sword, "A scimitar?" I mutter under my breath, but with this short hesitation my opponent pulls out another sword, I realise this is quite possible the sergeant of this first group. I fall into a battle stance and he tries goes to crush me under the weight of his sword, somehow my body seems slip and my scimitar comes up just in time, when did I learn how to use a sword? Beginner's luck I guess...

He then flurries a million strikes at me and I struggle under the series of slashes. Eventually I lose my footing as I fall into the muddy battleground. "This is the end for you!" The toad goes for the killing blow as he stabs at me from his standing position.

Surely this can't be the end, I wont lose here, in fact, I refuse!

In a sharp reaction I crawl out of the way and I jump up so I stand once again, I dash towards him and slash as fast as I can. Though he only ducks and sidekicks me and I skid against the ground and head-butt someone in the foot causing them to fall on the ground, I notice its another toad causing me to jump in fear, though I find out he's dead, instead causing nausea inside me. Although after that the original opponent comes to finish me off again,

"This time, your mine!" He then stops me from moving by holding me down with his iron foot and then slashes at me with all his might. Then he stops. He looks down. Eyes wide, and he falls to the ground.

"This spears aren't too shabby are they?" Drake smiles to me. With mortal blood on the end of the sharp-headed spear. He then grabs my hand and pulls me up from the mix of grass and mud covering me and my now brown-green shell.

"Too close, man, thanks a lot." I slightly curve my mouth into a smirk.

"Not a problem, but we need to get out of here now!" Drake tells me with some urgency.

"Why? We took out this whole group of toads it looks like, aren't we winning?" Drake quickly shakes his head,

"Troy, look." He points behind me, and I see that we haven't even left a dent in their massive force, and our fort has half crumbled, our army's morale broken, and there could only be 50 of us to their 240,

"Retreat!" One of our knights shouts to us, and to be fair I'll be happy to oblige. Some of our warriors limp with injury though me, Drake, and the rest of us, ran as fast as we can. I hear a galloping in the distance. No! The horses, I completely forgot! They are gaining on us fast, the limpers didn't stand a chance and are quickly picked off. Do they have no honour? Who chases down broken men? I guess the mushroom kingdom has dropped all morals, and now revenge is all they think.

"The trees, we can lose them in that forest!" Drake shouts to others. I never understood why they didn't give him a promotion, he has got double the skill, fighting and leadership, that half us koopatroopas could ever hope to have.

Everyone nods to themselves as we race to the trees. Almost there, gonna make it, just a few more steps and freedom is- lost. A horse kicks my shell, sending me flying into a tree and a large crack on the once green shell of mine. The old thing protects me from most of impact but horse had enough kick to keep me on the ground.

I slowly turn my aching body as I see a horse galloping towards me with a caped toad sitting upon it. I don't have the energy left to get up, all I can do is brace myself as the spear is pointed at me. Right when I close my eyes I feel the spear hold between the tiny gap between my body and the shell as it throws me slightly into the air and I fall onto the back of horse.

As I land I startle in surprise and I hear a faint voice shout, "Troy!" in the distance however before I have a chance to turn I am smashed in the face with and elbow which in an instant knocks me out while everything goes black.

...

I take my sweet time opening my eyes, though when I do I feel like my eyes are still closed. Where ever I am its completely pitch black. The ground is solid and murky, and the room is damp. Due to the damp my body feels quite wet and the ground must be concrete because when I scrape my feet against it, it prickles against my skin.

I raise my body slowly, almost zombie like until, "So, you're finally awake then." This quickly startles me, although as you probably know, I'm easily startled.

"Whoa! Who are you? And where am I? Why am I here and-"

"Stop! Your a man of a lot of questions huh? We are in a prison cell, you must have been capture by the mushroom kingdom, so I guess you already know that the war has started?"

I only now finally turn my head to him, realising he's in the room with me, I nod my head though I tilt it a bit as I look at him, he didn't exactly look of this world.

He had a half white and half black mask on, with an extravagant purple and white pointy jester robe and hat, though the hat covered the whole of the back of his head, somewhat like the tail of a peacock. The rest of his body is black or covered in black. To be honest the whole outfit was quite... bizarre.

"Here, you must learn how to fight, with the strength of a buffalo, and the swiftness of the ninja."

"With the what of the what? What are you talking about?" I ask him with my head still concocted.

"You will fight almost everyday against some of the worst, and some of the best, you must beat them all in combat, and one day you will escape."

"And how do you expect me to believe that? You don't look ruft up at all, in fact, you look pristine clean, yet your still claiming that you fight all day? Who are you?" I couldn't help asking,

"Me? I am the master of dimensions, the pleaser of crowds, I am... Dimentio!"

"Oi! Be quiet prisoner, its time for you to get moving!" A toad guard wearing black chain mail and a spiky fail shouts at us.

"Prisoner? There is 2 of us in h-" I turn my head to find out the purple joker is gone, my eyes widen, and I look back at the guard.

"Alright mad creature, out of your cell!" He grabs me and throws me out of the cell and back on to the ground, my energy has hardly recovered so fighting back isn't an option, for now I can only do as he says as I slowly reach a standing position.

"Lets get moving, come on!" He pushes me forward and as we walk forward, I couldn't help asking myself,

Where am I, why haven't they just killed me, and who the heck is that Dimentio!?


	2. Every Man for Himself

AN: And here it is Chapter 2 Enjoy and i disclaim anything Mario!

Also thanks to shadowclanwarrior for the review! Greatly appreciate it, Reviews help me write chapters you know,

Anyway, on with the Story!

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Chapter 2: Every man for himself

Once we got to the top of the stairs of the dark, damp prison the rather large toad guard put his hand on my shoulder, I turn with an eyebrow raised though he only shakes his head,

"You must be new around here, we can't let you walk around with your eyes open or you'd know how to get out of here, so wear this." He gives me a thick piece of cloth, my mouth once again shapes into an 'O' as I realise its a blindfold, I tighten it around my eyes but I leave it slightly undone so I can slightly see, however the guard is too clever as he tightens the blindfold really hard so I can't see a thing.

He pushes me to the right direction through what feels like endless hallways, and even though I walk into a fair few walls, we made it in the end.

...

The toad quickly takes the blindfold off from my head and I quickly close my eyes to shield them from the blinding bright light and I hold my hands up as if to ward off the sun. I could almost feel the burly toad just roll his eyes as he says,

"Get a move on, I haven't got all day you know!" Eventually I open my eyes and see a massive, grand arena that is filled with warriors duelling each other left, right and centre. It would be a sight to behold, but after what Dimentio told me, if I ever wanted to leave, I would have to beat every last one of these people, and some of them looks to have to skills of legends. I set my eyes on a shaking green shelled koopa and a aqua dotted toad amazon. Every time the koopa tries to strike her with his sword, she instantly parries him with her dual sword-scimitar combo then slashes at his neck, just stopping short of cutting the poor koopa's head clean off.

After one last time of him trying to slash her, with him going for her knees, the amazoness just jumps on top of his sword, causing him to drop it under the immense pressure, then her whole body comes crashing down on him, knocking him onto his back. Somehow she bounces off of him and lands of her feet again with her sword dangerously pointing close to his face.

Even though she faces the koopa she speaks as if addressing everyone in the arena, "All of these people are too weak to give me even training at all, you're all a waste of my time!" And with that she storms off, leaving the poor ex-soldier out cold and me... I still don't know what to think, impressed or petrified, because someday, somehow, I got to beat her to get out, and that's not happening any time soon.

"That's enough dawdling prisoner! Time to show you the armoury!" The large daunting toad guard seems to shout at me, even though I'm still standing right next to him. I sigh heavily as he once again pushes me, only this time through the duelling arena and out to the other side, I realise that there is nothing there,

"Wait, what? Why did you take me here?" I ask, almost frantically wondering if he's actually planning to execute me on the spot, or worse! If that's even possible...

"No you imbecile! Underneath you." I look at him with my head concocted, but before I can answer he hauls and the floor under me and I instantly buckle.

"What are you do-" I finally see the staircase underneath where I once stood, and the cellar door that opens, I couldn't help but sweatdrop at my own stupidity.

"Get in there now! You've wasted enough of my time today, you're not the only prisoner in this whole damn place you know!" The burly toad screams at me, I start to get frustrated at that but I can't get away from him until I just go where he wants.

We walk down a similar set of stairs to the ones I climb up, finally reaching their armoury, and by the stars in the sky is it massive! There must have been one of every weapon in the world in here, not considering the ones already in use outside! There is some intuition in me that makes me feel excited as I run inside the large room but just before I can get in there once again the toad stops me,

"What!" I practically shout at him, which in hinds sight I probably shouldn't have done, because now he is fuming at me,

"Look you idiot! I don't care who you are, where you from, or why the hell they brought someone as scrawny as you here, but no one, and I mean NO one, speaks to me like that, you hear!" I almost quiver in fear, but to be honest the likely hood of me leaving is slim anyway, so I start to get a bit... delirious,

"Meh, okay I'm sorry, just can you please get off my case and lets just start doing this stupid thing. Its already taking long enough as it is without you constantly stopping me." I just walk into the room without looking at his reaction, but you don't need an expert to know what he is thinking.

That's when I hear him sigh, "look, just pick up any weapon, however I was going to say only choose the weapons in the beginner section because you probably wouldn't be able to pick up anything else, alright?" I hear him mutter something else, but this does make me pause my thoughts, was he trying to help me, or was that regulations? Either way I probably shouldn't of got angry at him for it,

"... Thanks then." I just say as I look to the weapons. Though 1 weapon I couldn't help but stare at, I have never seen anything like it, it is made of thick wood and it curves in an arch and has a piece of string attached either end. Next to it there are loads of wooden shafts with spiked heads on the end of it, all of which metallic.

"That's a bow and arrow by the way, you can't use that in the duel arena, but you may get to use them at target practice." I look to him and nod, eventually I pick up a weapon, this time a spear, I half choose it just because it had a similar pointed edge to the arrows on the end. I pick it up only then realising how long it is, the whole pole is wooden except the head, I still don't know why people use it over swords, but I guess I'm about to find out.

"Right then, get out, its time for your first duel, by the way once you're there I'm leaving you, other business to attend to." When he says that I almost sigh, something made me want him to watch as a supporter, but I guess in this arena I'm all alone. Every man for himself.

...

We eventually reach the arena again and I almost do a double take when I realise that everyone has stopped duelling and have all lined up, I look at the burly toad guard though he only returns a harsh glare, "Get movin' Troy!" Wait, he knows my name? That doesn't make any sense! I haven't told them anything about me! Though during my train of thought he pushes me forward with some urgency as I stumble forward and practically run to join the other koopas and toads in line.

As I stand straight up I notice the people we are facing, all three are toads, the 2 I don't recognise are obviously powerful toads as they wield full knights armour and a sword each at their waists and show no sign of how heavy that must be. I one on the left is the woman from before, the pink amazon, only now do I notice the her 2 pony tails she has and her entire body is encased in chainmail, from shoulder to toe, with her trusty twin swords gripped tightly in her hands.

The green dotted toad in the middle is the first to speak, "Ahem, Warriors! Welcome to our weekly tournament! For those of you who don't know the guidelines... Everyone here will be in separate divisions, in which there will be 5: A. B. C. D and E. These divisions don't represent strength, instead, the top 5 warriors will be split into each group, same with the bottom 5, and all those in between!" While he is talking I feel myself slowly losing focus, why did they have to bring me here? Being with the koopa troop was so much more simple, just march and protect or attack, now I'm a slave to goodness knows where, I got toads shouting at me telling me what to do and-

"Hey, you! You were already late, and now your daydreaming? Get in to position slave!" This snaps me back in to reality as I realise it's the amazon, she's dead in front of me and I hadn't even noticed, "I have half a mind to just humiliate you now, and then throw your ass back into a cell! You hear me?" I couldn't help but quiver and that, who knew toads could be so... scary? I thought they were the good guys. Nonetheless I sprint off to the others, hoping to the stars above I just happen to be in the right division group.

"Are you an idiot?" A lime green shelled koopa asks me, I practically panic, am I in the wrong lane as well? "How do you zone out at a time like this, if you don't turn out to be in the top 30, you don't get any food for a whole day!"

"What!? When did they say that?" The other koopa just sighs,

"He said it in the speech... Weren't you listening at all?" I only shake my head and he starts to laugh,

"I hope you're my first opponent." He seems to gleam while I quiver, great I gotta duel with this ridiculously long thing, how do I stand a chance against any of the swords and... Someone's using a flail! Oh my g-

"Troy and Dennis, over here!" A toad referee shouts to us, so they all know my name...

"Haha! Didn't I just get lucky!" The lime shelled koopa cries out, he's Dennis!?

He slowly jogs to the position with his trusty sword in his right gloved hand and I follow suit, just with a massive spear In my left hand,

"No long explanation, no pleasantries, just the first one to have the other in a position of close death wins, fight!" close _what?_

Dennis strikes at me as fast as lightning giving me only milliseconds to jump backwards, in a instinct I hold up my spear as if to ward him off, and surprisingly it works, he runs around me trying to find a way into defence, then he smirks,

"Great..." I mutter under my breath, he then uses his sword to swing at my spear as hard as he can, causing the weapon to be torn out of my hands, in a sheer reaction I jump on to him and punch him in the gut as hard as I can, knocking the wind out of him, quickly I sprint for my spear, I realise he's right behind me so I grab the spear and as he's upon me I smash him with the back of my spear, causing him to sprawl onto the ground. I then jump onto him still in a standing position and before the lime green shelled koopa can stand up I hold my spear against his throat. I look to the referee for guidance and he nods,

"Well played, and the winner is, Troy!" I stop questioning the name calling, and just let my body fall to the ground in happiness and tiredness, I actually won one? Maybe this wont be so bad after all.

"Ha, no food for me I guess, congratulations." Dennis holds his hand out to me, and I grab it as he pulls me up. "It wont end the same way next time you know, you wont be so lucky!" I couldn't help smirk at this,

"Whatever you say, 'Den'"

"Den? What kinda name is that?"

"Your name from now on!" I explain to him, and just before he smacks me round the head someone shouts,

"Troy and Blood, over here now!" A short and angry toad tells us, Blood?

"What kind of name is that?" I speak out loud, next thing I know Dennis is forcing chainmail over my torso and I look over to him questioningly,

"Trust me, you'll need it, go!" I don't ask any questions but what could be so bad about this guy? As I walk with the heavy armour on I stop instantly at the sound of,

"Well done on that last duel, but this will truly prove if you are worthy, that or you wont live to see tomorrow." I could recognise that voice from anywhere,

"Dimentio? What are you doing here and where are-"

"Ciao!" He tells me while his laugh dies as if he is fading away, I couldn't tell if that scenario happened in my head or in real life, however only now do I notice my opponent.

Now I understand why they gave me the warnings, with a blood thirsty smile plastered on his face, he wears black knight armour and even the toad's mushroom cap is completely black, whether that's natural or not I don't know. His face is full of scars and his insanity seems to radiate off of him as he glares right into my eyes, as if staring down my soul. I hold the sword while partially shaking, only then do I realise what he's holding, as he bounces it up and down on his hand, I can see blood covering the spikes,

"That flail..."

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AN: Yeah I wasn't feeling this chapter, I felt as if it didn't have enough interesting bits, sorry if some of it feels forced but, R&R anyway and tell me what I did wrong! :)


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